St. Augustine said that
hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage. Anger at the way things
are, and courage to struggle to create things as they should be. These
acts perpetrated against humanity today were acts of anger at the way things
are. They were not courageous acts, but acts of anger laced with hate.
Our first response must be support and compassion for the victims, and
families and friends of the victims. But, in addition, we should ask ourselves
what conditions led these fellow humans to develop such anger and hatred,
led them to commit such abominably inhumane acts, and why was it directed
at these particular targets in the United States?

We should not repress our anger and
indignation at these hateful and callous acts, or our anger and indignation
at all hateful and callous acts, but our anger must be accompanied not
by hate, but with love, and by the courage to struggle to create a more
just world, and THAT my fellow Americans will require a major effort to
question, understand, challenge, change and raise OUR national consciousness.
Please, my fellow Americans, listen with open ears, open minds and open
hearts.

While no loving and decent human
will tolerate acts of terror, we must try to understand the extremely difficult
question: why? For example, what is the symbolic significance of the Pentagon
and the World Trade Center in the eyes of the world? And here, my fellow
Americans we must search deep into our own history, our own policies, our
own pursuits, our own impositions, and, our own hearts. It is painful,
but, let us be blunt: the war against terrorism has begun, violently. The
two most potent symbols of global military and economic violence, global
military and economic terrorism, have been struck. These were cowardly
and unconscionable acts, to be sure, and, as in most acts of terror, the
innocent suffer most, the working class, the toiling class. We must launch
a war against terrorism, non-violently. A.J. Muste, committed pacifist,
advised us that in a world built on violence we must be revolutionaries
before we are pacifist That is, we must work to abolish the institutions
of violence, non-violently.

However, make no mistake, my fellow
Americans, the Pentagon IS the center of world military violence and terrorism.
The US is the world leading exporter of tools of death and destruction.
Let us be honest, we have been committed to violence as a way to address
international conflicts for many, many years. And a PARTIAL list of the
results of our commitment to violence includes: Korea ñ millions
killed. Vietnam ñ millions killed. Cambodia ñ hundreds of
thousands killed. Laos ñ hundreds of thousands killed. Iraq ñ
hundreds of thousands killed. Guatemala ñ hundreds of thousands
killed. Hiroshima and Nagasaki ñ hundreds of thousands killed. East
Timor ñ hundreds of thousands killed. Nicaragua ñ tens of
thousands killed. El Salvador ñ tens of thousands killed. Colombia
ñ tens of thousands killed. Dominican Republic ñ thousands
killed. Haiti ñ thousands killed. Yugoslavia ñ thousands
killed. Panama ñ hundreds killed. And let us not forget the ways
in which we have mistreated the Cuban people for over 40 years now with
our embargo and repeated acts of terrorism. Let us remember my father's
words during the buildup to the US attack on Iraq: there will be no negotiations,
what we say goes. No negotiations simply means we prefer violence. What
we say goes expresses the arrogance, chauvinism and mystique of invincibility
that has separated the US from the world. Both views express the notion
that the US is above international law and the UN Charter, outside the
family of nations. Is it any wonder that Harvard professor Samuel Huntington
said that in the eyes of most of the world the US is seen as THE rogue
superpower, considered THE single greatest external threat to their societies?
The world quakes in its boots wondering when we will attack, and what form
of violence will ensue: cruise missiles, helicopter gunships, chemical
or biological agents, nuclear bombs, F18s, F22s, B52s, fumigation campaigns,
IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programs, or Austerity Programs, embargoes,
sanctions, disappearances, assassinations, massacres, tortures, cultural
cooptation or erasure, etc., etc., etc.

Today, sadly, we have experienced
what we have imposed on much of the world. Today our freedom came under
attack. We thought we were free to impose military and economic violence
anywhere we chose, with impunity. The freedom from impunity appears to
no longer exist. The World Court attempted to sanction the US for our commitment
to violence but the Reagan Administration claimed that the World Court
had no jurisdiction over our actions. Yes, we have been, and we are a rogue
state, and, my fellow Americans, it must stop!

Tonight, my fellow Americans we must
raise a call of humility, a humility that does not in any way diminish
humanity, but a humility that raises the respect for, and dignity of, all
people, a humility that allows us to celebrate all human life. It is time
that we joined the world, not as its major purveyor of violence and destruction,
but as a peaceful participant who will work to end violence, end racism,
end classism, end sexism, rather than increase them. The proposed Pentagon
budget, the violence budget, for next year is $330 billion dollars. I am
tonight proposing an immediate 50% decrease in this spending that promotes
violence, and calling for a redistribution those funds to help ameliorate
problems of hunger, poverty and poor-health around the world. It is a call
to reach out with love, and a call to find the courage to struggle to create
a more just, peaceful, healthful and equitable world, a world in which
human creativity is celebrated rather than the human capacity for great
violence.

Tonight we must call on the world
to forgive us OUR sins, forgive us OUR sordid and calamitous acts of violence
that we have pursued without pause for over 50 years. Let this be the beginning
of our reconciliation with the world. We now, to some degree, understand
the pain, misery and suffering we have caused, the turmoil we have perpetrated,
the hate we have elicited, the destruction we have imparted, the physical,
emotional, psychological and spiritual scars and unconscionable hurt we
have created and that much of the world has endured because of our rapacious
and destructive pursuit of wealth, power and privilege at the expense of
human concerns and human lives. We humbly beg the forgiveness of all humanity,
as we pray that you will offer your support, your compassion, your understanding,
and your love in our time of suffering, mourning and loss.

This is not a time, as it is never
a time, to seek vengeance, but a time to seek the courage to forgive, to
harbor the power of anger to be used in acts of love, and to uncover insights
that will allow us to direct our indignation at the institutions of power,
violence and greed, many of which, sadly, are centered in the US, and begin
to transform them in order to increase our love for the victims of that
power, violence and greed, including those who died and were injured in
the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

When I attended the G8 meetings in
Genoa recently I saw a banner in the street that said you are 8, we are
6 billion, and it struck me deeply. We have pursued for too long the interests
of the few at the expense of the many. Wealth, privilege and power inequalities
exacerbate every day. We have created, protected, endorsed and now imposed
on the rest of the world an economic system, symbolized by the World Trade
Center, and protected by the Pentagon, that must produce and expand in
order to profit and survive, an economic system that treats everything
as a commodity to be exploited whether it is water, food, air, soil, the
rest of the environment, animals, fish, or our fellow humans, a system
that puts corporate profit interests above human interests. This must stop.
We, who represent and serve power, should have listened sooner. Let this
horrible tragedy serve as our wake up call. Let us begin tonight to transform
this monster before it is too late. This act of terror, infamous and abominable,
will pale in comparison to the growing terrors of increasing global militarism
of which we are the primary cause, increased global warming of which we
are the primary cause, and intensifying environmental destruction of which
we are the primary cause and which may soon make much of the world uninhabitable
for humans, and surely increase human suffering, misery and death.

If we are to overcome these acts
of terror, and more importantly prevent future acts of terror against humanity,
we must act out of a sense of hope and faith that the future is unfinished,
that it is there to be created; and, we must be driven by a judicious anger
at the way things are, anger at the monster we have created, anger that
can be harbored in momentous acts of love, and the courage to struggle
in cooperation, understanding, support and solidarity with the rest of
humanity to create a world in which all will be happy to live.

Tonight, and in the days and weeks
to come, we must find the courage to not only reach out with love and understanding,
but to find the courage to self-reflect honestly about what WE have done
to the world so that we can understand why things are the way they are,
and what we can and will do to struggle to create things as they should
be ñ a world of less violence and greater peace; a world of diminished
arrogance and greater humility; a world where more people do not die of
hunger every two years than were killed in both World Wars combined, but
a world in which all people have access to the great and nourishing bounties
of the earth; a world of less disease and greater health; a world of less
hate and greater love; a world of less vengeance and greater understanding;
a world of less greed and greater sharing; a world of less destruction
and greater creativity; a world of less disparity and greater equality;
a world of less fundamentalism and more progressivism; a world of less
mysticism and more humanism; a world of less criminality and greater justice;
a world of less separatism and more solidarity; a world in which we live
both an examined life and a committed life; a world of less militarism
and more artistry; a world of less vilification and more celebration; a
world in which life is worth living; a world in which we understand well
the lesson of Rousseau who said the fruits of our labor belong to us; the
fruits of the earth belong to everyone; and, the world itself belongs to
no one.

So, in closing, my fellow Americans,
allow us to support one another in our quest through hope, and anger, and
courage, to make love our aim during this time of crisis, and in the future.
And, let us remember and reflect upon the words stated in Corinthians 13:1-3:
though I may speak with the voice of angels; though I may understand all
the mysteries; though I may have all the knowledge; though I may give all
to feed the poor; though I may give my body to be burned, if I have not
love, I have nothing at all.

Thank you. Good night, and blessings,
peace, justice, solidarity and love for all humanity.